velohead66

Our company sends out approx 2,500 Christmas Cards to our agents.
Our marketing guru expects each senior employee to 'sign' each card. Yes, 2,500 cards.

I suggested we each write a message, scan it, and print it on each card. Was told that this is not personal enough, and we had to sign every card.

1) Am I out of order for being too lazy or impersonal ??
2) If you receive a company Christmas Card with printed message/signitures, would think this was 'cheap'.

Quick poll of your opinions please ......

Clare

Erm, we sign all ours, but then again, it is a fraction of the amount you have to send

Some Card companies will scan them for you and print them when they do the logo print. Doesn't cost too much and I'm sure if a professional printing company will do a good job of it so it doesn't look too bad.

Either that or you'll have a very sore wrist

MarkO

Two things here.

1. If you scan/print each card, it's totally impersonal, and effectively becomes junk mail to the customers, who would probably just bin it.

2. Getting a senior partner to sign 2,500 cards seems daft to me - surely doing so many just devalues the cards in the first place?

Seems an awful waste of paper, resources, time, and effort for something which most clients probably DGAS about anyway.

Ferne

By the time you've signed that lot they'll be ready for NEXT Christmas - you poor thing. I suggest you get him to sign them first and let him suffer from RSI!!!

merkin

we sent 'e' christmas cards this year, and gave the same money as the cards cost last year to charity

ChrisB

So they just went into Deleted Items in Outlook rather than the paper bin then Merkin

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

Ah yes Chris but electronic rubbish is more environmentally friendly than paper rubbish, just think of all the tree saved by merkin not sending christmas cards.

merkin

Exactly Chris, much more environmentally friendly
(unless deleted items is environmentally unfriendly - could be for all i know)

ChrisB

Good point Wurzel.

Less time signing cards means more time for more productive matters... like going to pub

velohead66

Assuming 5 secs per card, thats 3½ hours of non productive time.
Multiple that by 6 people, comes to a tidy sum of dosh.
Oppotunity cost and all that !!

marty_t3

The customers aren't really gonna look at the signature that closely anyway... just hire a 5 quid an hour temp for 1/2 a day and get them to sign your name on the cards.

Dream Weaver

Go to one of them print places, and get them to make you a rubber stamp of your signature. Then buy a blue ink pad - problem solved.

philc

Quick poll of your opinions please ......

- agree with Merkin; an email (with Christmassy background) and note saying money donated to charity in lieu of a Xmas card is more appreciated than a fancy Xmas card

(receive fancy Xmas card <thinks> - the supplier's got too big a profit margin ....)

Mossman

Funnily enough, we (senior management) are just doing the sodding signing of them now! Could not agree more, waste of time, but do understand the lack of personal touch bit.
Not everyone, and certainly not our customers (nurses) have email remember.
Mossman